The Walking Dead Roundtable 3.10: “Home”

Ghosts, psychosis, and the undead. As I outlined in my recap on Monday, things are completely normal here on The Walking Dead. Let’s take a look at the roundtablers’ thoughts. Ken Hwynn, Jeannie Chan, Kiki Smith, and NIkki Urban join me to chat about the episode.

The breakdown: Each week, a Walking Dead roundtabler or I will provide a recap the day after the newest episode airs. The next Friday morning a roundtable discussion of the episode is posted hosted by me, Joe, and a variety of guest commenters.

Jeannie: Agh, Rick chasing Lori’s ghost around is starting to make me super-sad.

Kiki: Why does Andrea feel the need to stay with The Governor? Why Andrea?!

Jeannie: The post-apocalyptic heart wants what the post-apocalyptic heart wants, I guess…

Joe: Cute in a hunting vest does not trump megalomania.

Kiki: Michonne is back to her same old wily ways. That is to say, back to saying nothing. She is proving to be a great actress with her facial expressions.

Ken: Absolutely Kiki…

Kiki: Not to mention they’ve finally gone and killed the last other African American main character… and we’re back to one again. Le sigh.

Joe: Do you mean…oh, Lord–I forgot his name already–Oscar? He wasn’t really a main character. He was a character with an arc (that ended in a rather obnoxious manner). But, all signs point to Tyreese being a main character. Maybe as soon as he comes back Michonne will go on vacation. Only one black face at a time. Maybe they think the audience will get confused.

Kiki: Can we talk about the fact that Merle is possibly the most despicable man in existence?

Joe: I like that Daryl is giving Merle the #realtalk someone needs to give him, because the racist comments are fine (in scripted television) but only so later that character gets the comeuppance that they need to get in that situation. Merle can’t be a cool racist zombie-killing machine because that influences the way people perceive racists (as silly as that seems, it’s a truth in our society).

Ken: True. Is Glenn calling the shots now that Rick’s gone off the deep end? I guess someone really ought to step up.

Jeannie: Seriously, Glenn. Your “take-charge, I’m the big man around here” vibe was hot up until you decided that also meant speaking for Maggie. Part of me loves her for being, like, “Do you feel better?” in response to his question to whether or not she had been raped because this is her trauma and her story and he’s been doing nothing but projecting his own feelings about it onto her and everyone else.

Joe: ::slow clap::

Jeannie: Another part of me just hates this scene in general. I’m not saying that Glenn doesn’t have a right to be angry about what happened but he needs to check himself. Joe, you mentioned in your awesome recap how the later conversation between Herschel and Glenn didn’t sit right with you, especially given how it was juxtaposed with Beth and Maggie’s scene. None of this is sitting right with me at all. (Is now a good time to point out that there’s only one woman who writes for this show?)

Joe: Yes, it is. Because one of these writers’ wives (or sisters, mothers, or lesbian neighbors) needs to tell them how this looks. Because the woman writer on the show doesn’t seem to be doing it.

Nikki: I have to say, I really, really hated the Glenn/Maggie/rape/un-rape scene. It was traumatic, it was demeaning and, as a woman, sure that situation probably feels awful but have we forgotten that Glenn had the ever-loving you-know-what kicked out of him? He also proceeded to fashion a weapon out of zombie bone. This is the zombie apocalypse! We’re seeing human nature at it’s worst, and terrible things are happening everywhere. I really don’t think either of them has a right to be angry with each other, as it was The Governor running the show back there. When I boil it down, she’s angry at him for being so worried and angry about what happened. He’s angry at her because she’s so angry about him being angry about what happened? If anything, they should be angry at The Governor, but I could do without the game of anger chicken in this episode.

Kiki: I totally agree, Nikki. There was so much of it, that at one part it was hard to pick out why one was mad at the other until Maggie finally spoke. But seriously, Glenn needs to tone it down. I mean I would have been mad as well–and I sympathize with his feeling helpless in being able to help her–but I also think the writers need to wrap this up. There was no resolution to the argument plotline–although they might have been interrupted by an attack from The Governor so I can’t be too upset about it, I guess.

Jeannie: I can concede on that point, Nikki and Kiki. I did actually forget that Glenn went through a huge trauma himself. Thinking back on it, I’d say that a lot of his anger is probably displaced onto what happened to Maggie–because of course it would be safer for him to think about that instead. Hmm. Now Herschel’s attempt to talk to Glenn about rage seems less ineffective to me.

Jeannie: Merle totally did lose his hand because he was a simple minded piece of sh*t!

Kiki: It was a long time coming, Daryl. But it’s about time.

Jeannie: OK, this scene kind of wrecked me. I feel like there’s been a lack of genuine, dramatic scenes between characters that reveal any sort of heart or humanity, but this brought it all back for me. The way Daryl put his backpack on after his scars were revealed, the depth of the regret and abandonment issues between these brothers. Ugh. All the feels!

Nikki: For real: I’m such a fan of Daryl’s character development. Regardless of how much or whether he really trusts anyone in “the group”, it’s great to know that he’s making original and astronomically better moral decisions than he did earlier in his life. I’m lookin’ at you, Merle.

Ken: Daryl’s trunk squish…zombie kill of the year.

Joe: Blech.

Jeannie: The only thing grosser than this moment on this show’s history was probably the well zombie breaking apart. *ponders for a moment*–brb, going to make a list!

Kiki: When I said this episode wasn’t gory enough…I spoke too soon.

Joe: You brought that moment upon us, Kiki!

Jeannie: So…is anyone even going to attempt to help Rick, or address this somehow, or even talk to him about his mental state, or are they just gonna let him continue to wander around? Wait–nevermind. Herschel, what are we ever going to do without you?

Joe: I have to admit I teared up at the way Rick was answering. That’s was just really sad.

Gene Page. Via AMC.com.

Kiki: He tried, at least, although we’ll have to see if this helps him at all. At least Rick has admitted the ghost isn’t real.

Kiki: Carol, moving on quickly? Axel is making the mo–

Everyone: !!!!

Jeannie: Uh, that scared the hell out of me. I almost spilled my beer!

Ken: Scratch that, Kiki, the Gov took care of that pretty quickly. LOL!

Joe: I like to think of you drunk while watching this, Jeannie. I, myself, yelped like a Pomeranian.

Kiki: Wow. The Gov wastes no time. Andrea needs to. get. out.

Joe: Oh, lord. That nickname is back? When he gets back to camp, she better not be there. But we all know she is and that it won’t be good.

Ken: Damn, this shootout is the most intense one yet! Walker Bomb Mayhem!

Jeannie: Oh snap!

Ken: Damn…Daryl and Merle actually save the day…

Kiki: Well, that came out of nowhere.

Ken: I have to say, as much as I dislike the Governor, seeing that van bust out of nowhere and bleed out zombies in the prison yard was kind of epic.

Kiki: Word, Ken. However, as much awesomeness this episode gave us this time around…don’t you feel like there are some big gaping holes? Maybe I have a bad memory, but that silver truck Glenn was driving. When did they acquire that one (why does it look all shiny and new…and why do their clothes in Woodbury for that matter)?

Joe: Well, Woodbury clearly has it together. Maybe they found the LL Bean in Atlanta.

Gene Page. Image via AMC.com.

Kiki: Deal, but also, when Daryl and Merle came back like knights in shining armor…Awesome, but like weren’t they at least a day out? And why didn’t Glenn bust out of his car and beat the bejesus out of Merle?

Joe: Well, he had other things to worry about. But I probably would have shot Merle and been, like, “Oops.” I’m willing to forgive weird time things here because after all, this is a show about zombies.

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“Michonne is never really open in the comics either because she doesn’t trust the group yet.”

I agree with you, Michonne was a bit of a wild card when she showed up in the beginning of the comics, she was sort of acting like Rick is now in the show. I wasn’t sure what she would turn out to be like, so as a fan of the comics I’m not really upset that she’s not saying much right now.

http://twitter.com/Jon_dArc Jonathan Woodworth

My take on the whole Glenn/Maggie drama is that it’s dumb but realistic. Remember that in Woodbury Glenn basically straight-up asks her whether the governor raped her; she gives an immediate, straight, and direct negative answer. Later, during the getaway, there’s the scene where Glenn goes on a tirade about them not having killed the Governor. Note that during that scene, he makes it abundantly clear that he straight-up did not believe Maggie when she said she wasn’t raped. This makes Maggie angry and hurt, reasonably IMO; Glenn, even though he does eventually ask again and doesn’t obviously reject the response, still shows no insight into the effects of his earlier assumption, which means that in addition to a feeling of violation (both personal and vicarious) he’s also dealing with Maggie’s anger which he doesn’t understand the source of.

http://twitter.com/HunterBlackComx Justin Peniston

There actually is a very normal, human reason why Glenn and Maggie are angry with each other, and there’s more to it than, “I’m mad because you’re mad and don’t deserve to be!”

Both of them went through epic trauma, and in a certain light, it was worse for each of them because the other was there. Of course they’re angry with the Governor. OF COURSE THEY ARE. But the Governor isn’t there, and they have to do something with those feelings. This is how normal people buckle under pressure.

They are also, irrationally, but in a very normal, human way, angry with each other because each expects the other to MAKE THINGS BETTER, and neither of them can yet. It happens. It’s normal…so much so that I am COMPLETELY IMPRESSED that they have created this amazing conflict out of these totally mundane human qualities.

Now, I was disappointed by the absence of Tyrese and his group. Michonne was not present enough to fill this show’s seemingly tokenistic (yes, I made that word up) requirements.

http://twitter.com/QuothTheRavings Rob

Great points. But I just can’t help but prefer the way the group’s encounter with the governor happened in the comics. Michonne’s motivations make a lot more sense there (and she’s more interesting over all), and the governor comes across a lot more menacing. In the show, he seems more like an angry guy with a gun, instead of an absolutely-out-of-his-freaking-mind-and-will-stop-at-nothing kind of guy.

Not sold on the ghost of Lori stuff. I hope they don’t drag it out. And Rick uh, needs to remember that he has a newborn to pay attention to.

It looks like we’ll now finally get to see the governor being The Governor. I’m interested to see how this plays out vs. how this played out in the source material. So hard not to shout comics spoilers… ><

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